Lady Corsica

Lady Corisca

25th July 2011

Lady Corsica… who is she? What’s the traditional attire? According to Image, it’s the Crete Girl dress! As for who is Lady Corsica… it's me! 

I was once again on gangway, this time in Corsica, rocking my favourite costume minus the hat/head piece. I was a bit worried people would notice that this was the traditional attire Corsica, especially as we had plenty of French guests on board. I was over the moon about being able to wear my favourite gangway costume though. I always get good counts and it’s a brilliant outfit to skip around in, having a laugh.

Feeling tried after very little sleep I was ready for gangway. Fede was shooting me. Sandra was sitting in the corridor in the dolphin costume. Hernan would be shooting her. 

We had to pull Fabio out of bed. We wanted to switch him with someone else. He was too drunk to speak. None of us were happy with him, to say the least. He’d kept us up last night banging on the walls trying to cause arguments. We almost called security. We are all reaching the end of our tethers! 

Fede popped out to see if the gangway was ready. It was, but the Captain wasn’t giving the all clear until later and none of the tours were leaving until 8. We waited around for 15 minutes and no one exited the ship. Taking the opportunity we ran up to the mess for a bit of breakfast. While walking around the ship in costume I got a few smiles, laughs and confused looks. Climbing the stairs dressed up as a dolphin or wearing a huge, long dress, wasn't exactly an easy task!

We were back on gangway at 08.00 and people were starting to trickle out of the Mariner. It wasn’t long until the tours came bringing along a mad rush of guests. We couldn’t grab them quick enough! The Italians were as difficult as they come, but we managed to get quite a few shots. 

Sandra was trying to smudge in Italian from inside the dolphin. It even freaked a couple of people out… they didn’t expect the dolphin to talk. Every so often the gangway would go dead and sooner or later another mad rush would come. It was pretty temperamental. 

During the breaks in between rushes, we took the chance to take a few photos of ourselves. This was mainly for Fede’s benefit as he’d be leaving after this cruise. What’s worse is he’s port manning and of course Jomar didn’t let him know. I offered to take his place so he could go out but you needed more than 24hours notice to do that.

Towards the end of gangway Fede’s batteries had completely ran out. Hernan was nearly out too. Fabio was the only one with some life in his, so he took over shooting me for a bit. Later, looking through the photos he’d taken, they were all over exposed or blurred. One things for sure, he really was too pissed to work!

Once gangway was over Luci, Sandra, Hernan and I headed out into Corsica. Just outside the port was a small market selling local produce from cheeses to pates to honey. Popping into a few of the shops, the prices were incredibly expensive. The stuff however was nice though so maybe next payday? 

We were all starving and looking for somewhere reasonably priced to have lunch. A pizza would set you back anything from 15 euros plus. We wanted to go somewhere with wifi which wasn't as easy to find as usual. 

In the end we stumbled across a small bar/café type place. The food was excellent and the guy working in the place was brilliant. He spoke a tiny bit of English and Spanish and we could manage a few words in French so there was a bit of a mix  of languages going on. He couldn’t believe we were all from different places and switching between English and Spanish (1 Brazilian, 1 Colombian, 1 Argentinian and 1 English).

After having something to eat we decided we’d better head back to the ship. 

Hernan had set up and the rest of us wanted to sleep for an hour. Hernan photographs pretty much anything. He saw a stray dog walking towards him so he bent down and took a couple of photos. All of a sudden a guy came out of nowhere, screaming at him in French and tried to knock the camera out of his hand. Jumping up, the French guy was telling Hernan he wanted to see the photos, telling him to delete them. Telling the nutcase to bugger off, we carried on walking back towards the ship, completely gobsmacked. Why would someone be so bothered about taking a photo of a stray dog?

The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur, even though there wasn’t much to do. The new charging system is still giving us problems. There are eight cash registers but only five can be used and there’s one tax refund machine. 

As we aren’t going outside the European Union and we are using Italy as our home port, we have to charge tax on top of our original prices. All the other ships in Europe are charging 18% tax (most are using Spain as their home port) but in Italy, the tax is 20%! All the receipts have to be kept in numerical order and if any get lost, we’ll face a hefty fine which will no doubt come out of our wages. 

Trying to keep receipts in order is impossible, especially when there are four of us on the tills. Before we just used a plain till roll, saved the receipts and stacked them up at the end of the day. We can’t do that anymore in case any get lost. It’s a bit of a mess for everyone involved. It’s a relief that we’ll only be doing this for seven weeks… but those seven weeks can’t go quick enough when it comes down to charging the guests for their photos!

Shark or Dolphin?

M&R, Lady Corisca, Jomar (BM) and Marching Band!

Marie (M&R), Lady Corsica and Jomar (BM)

Dancing to the Band

Bored During the Quiet Moments

Playing Around (Hernan & Lou)

Dolphin (Sandra), Fede (Shooter) and Lady Corsica (Me)

Sandra and Fede

I Don't Believe It!

I Don’t Believe It!

24^th July 2011

Another night of four hours sleep and the bags under my eyes are starting to look like huge sacks! This goes for pretty much everyone. As much as I love gangway, I like my sleep… and that means a little more than 4 hours. 

Climbing into the sailor’s costume, I grabbed David’s sailor’s hat. The guests could wear it, if not, I’d stick it onto my head. With my hair tied up and Aviator sun glasses on, Fede, Sandra and I were all ready for gangway.

The ship is too large for the port so we had to use tender boats to get into Cannes. I’d never experienced tendering. Apparently we were supposed to get onto the same boat as security but they left at 6.30!! It would have allowed us to prepare for the guests to come on the next boat. 

At 6.45 we were on the tender and waiting for the guests to get loaded on. Security popped onto the tender to tell us we needed to get to the other boat as it’d be leaving sooner. 

Running around to the other tender hub, I punched my card in. All of a sudden I was surrounded by security and officers. “Sorry Lou, you’re port manning”. WHAT!? I told them I was working on the gangway. The new M&R manager, Marie, came over and told me I was port manning and therefore wouldn’t be getting off the ship to work on gangway. She told us Jomar should’ve informed us that I was port-manning. Simultaneously we all turned and replied “Jomar doesn’t tell us anything”. Marie didn’t look too impressed.

Looking at me she informed me the tender boat would be leaving in 5 minutes and I’d better go find someone to wear my costume. Just as I was about to leave she called me back. I had a can of coke in my hand. “Next time I see you with a can of drink in your hand you’ll receive a warning. The I-95 is a guest area”. Since when has the I-95 a guest area?? It’s the main strip that crew use which runs from one end of the ship to the other. I didn’t have pockets so couldn’t put the can anywhere else. If I did have pockets, I wouldn’t have put my can inside… my pants would fallen down!!

Ringing Jomar, he had a go about me walking around with a can of coke. What the hell? I heard myself repeating Victor Meldrew’s infamous quote: I don’t believe it!! 

Jomar told me to tell Hernan he’d be taking me place as sailor. He was already working as the sailor from 9 to 11.30 and I didn’t fancy waking him up and giving him five minutes to get ready and onto the tender. “He’s asleep?” What a question! You went to bed at 2am. It’s now 7am and you don’t have work until 9am. Wouldn’t you be asleep? Common sense is obviously lacking! 

In the end after much confusion Jomar told me to let Fede he’d be free shooting alongside Sandra. Running back to the tender station, the boat had already left. Sanela who was supposed to be shooting the rail was nowhere to be seen. Late as usual.

Jumping back into bed for a couple of hours, I slept until 9.30. Getting my laptop I sat on Back Deck for a bit typing away. At least I had a few hours to update my blog. In fact, I had more than a few hours. I wasn’t scheduled to work until 6pm. 

A couple of hours later Camila and Luci came onto Back Deck to get me. Popping up to the Staff Mess we had something to eat before sitting out on the deck for a  while. 

Camila couldn’t go out as she was not fit for duty. Her hand is swollen like a balloon and the doctor’s don’t know why. Luci wanted to go out but had a lot of work plus she didn’t want to leave us on board. 

Watching the world go past, I was so upset I couldn’t get off the ship. This was the one port I was desperate to see! Talking to Eve, she said Monte Carlo was an hour away by train. It didn’t make me feel any better! 

The sea in Cannes is like a yacht’s motorway. It was so busy. Some of the private yachts going past were unbelievably impressive… and half the size of our ship! We were all shopping for our future yachts for when we marry an old, overly rich man. You didn’t think we’d be on the lookout for Prince Charming did you? 

The day was lovely and sooner than later, the only ones who were on the ship were those who were port manning. I wasn’t the only one saying “I Don’t Believe It!!!”

Rather than spend most of my time pulling my hair out, bored out of my box, I decided to make the most of my time… by sleeping. To add insult to injury, it was formal night. The first formal night so we were predicting it’d be busy.

Once again, I was on Titanic. If it’s not Bow, it’s Titanic. Still the new hires are getting the good back drops or Centrums where most of their photos are coming out completely out of focus. It didn’t make sense but I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

During the evening, Hernan told me Lee’s parents were on the gangway to see us all. They asked where I was. I don’t believe it!!! Lee’s parents who were guests on the ship when I first joined (and were absolutely fantastic) were on the gangway and I didn’t get a chance to see them. That kind of upset me. It’d have been great to see them. Maybe next time? I hoped so!

We were finally on our way to our next port, Corsica (France). Maybe Jomar will give me Cannes off? I’m owed two days off due to good comments. That way I’d have plenty of time to get out, jump on the train to Monte Carlo and snap away! I can’t wait!

That’s not the only thing we have planned. People were parasailing and nearby was a small island where the properties are apparently enormous and completely out of this world. For 50 euros you can be taken to the island and go scuba diving for 3 hours. Some of the guys are planning to go scuba diving next time. While they are at the bottom of the sea, Hernan and I will be high in the sky parasailing! 

Bring on the good times!

Team Work

Team Work

23^rd July 2011

As predicted, getting up after 4.5 hours sleep was a nightmare. I nearly fell back to sleep. 

Dragging my clothes on I had to make sure Zoran was out of bed and I was hoping he was in a relatively sober state. He was. Fabio was far from it. 

As promised I went down to the Crew Laundry to pick up the Gladiator costume for Zoran. The Indonesian guys from Laundry asked if I was going to be wearing the costume on gangway. When I said no, it was for a guy, they looked shocked before laughing. They thought I was joking as the Gladiator outfit is a burgundy velvet looking mini-dress. The lads rolled up laughing when I assured them a guy was wearing it as a girl couldn’t be a gladiator.

Heading back upstairs I passed the costume onto Zoran. Fabio was rolling around in bed talking crap. Fabio called me in to explain where my new emergency point is. Yesterday I had to change emergency cards with him because I didn’t speak Italian. There go my hopes of driving the life boat haha! 

Next Fabio started telling us about going to find his son. His son!? He said he had a son in Genoa, because about four years ago he was in dry dock and met a girl there. I told him it didn’t necessarily mean he had a son and to go back to sleep. His slurred reply was “No, I know I have a son because me and this girl did a lot of things together… a lot. Yeah man. I don’t know if I have a son, but I know I have a son. I’m going to be a great Dad and show my son how to smoke marijuana but only the good stuff”. This had us rolling up laughing at his drunken blabber. He didn’t know what the hell he was on about and to be quite honest, neither did we! Zoran and I went along with it and started winding him up. If and when he finally sobered up without topping himself up on drink, we’d remind him of everything and use it to our advantage… another good laugh at his expense!

Camila was fuming, sitting on the floor, shouting at Fabio to shut up! I don't know if she was jealous or had simply lost her patience with Fabio, but her reaction just made Zoran and I, play up more and contiune to wind Fabio up!

Come 07.00 we were heading onto the gangway. Hernan was in costume with Camila shooting. Zoran was also a Gladiator and teamed up with me. I always have a laugh with Zoran on gangway so I was pleased we were teamed up together. As Camila is slow at shooting, Zoran and I took the tours gangway. We each had a target of 500 images.

Sanela, who was late as usual and shooting the rail, had a 250 target. Would she get it? Probably not. Would we hit our target? Maybe not… but we were going to have a bloody good go at it!

Soon Zoran and I were clocking up our image count. Hernan and Camila came over to the tours gangway complaining there was no one coming out on their side. We told them to stand back a little and work the tour side too. There’s very little point having two of the same costumes standing right next to each other. So during the rush they were catching the people we missed or slipped passed us.

Guests from a one day  cruise were disembarking from Deck 4. We were wondering why the hell the gangway on Deck 1 was so deserted. It was unusual. We took it in turns to have a 15 minute break before Zoran and I had a walk around the ship. 

Coming out onto the deck, there was a terrace area leading off the exit from Deck 4. We headed up and started smudging. Security had told us that the passengers getting off the ship were disembarking… that wasn’t entirely true. Guests going out for the day were also using the Deck 4 gangway. Hernan and Camila came back from their break and took over from us. Again Zoran and I went for a walk around the ship. In the end we positioned ourselves out on the deck where two lines on guests were merging into one before heading down to the terrace where Hernan and Camila were.

One of the great things about working with Zoran is that we both want to have a laugh and have each other running around like blue arse flies. All wasn’t plain sailing though. Hernan and Camila got annoyed with us being on Deck 4 complaining we were taking all the counts even though there were two queues of people going down to them. We were only working one side where they had both sets of traffic. 

Zoran and I finally reached our target with 45 minutes to go. Checking how the others were doing, we did a few calculations. Each of us needed to get 40 images more to hit the overall 1,000 target. Zoran and I, rather than going in, started running around like crazy, grabbing people, pulling them in for a photo.

Hernan was still pissed and stormed back onto the ship 10 minutes early saying he was done. We were nearly at the 1,000 target and only needed 30 images more. Camila was complaining that we were being unfair for not “sharing” the guests with them. This wasn’t a playground! I tried to tell her that if she wanted to speak to me, then to do it later, not while I’m working, taking photos and smudging guests in. She wouldn’t have it. 

Stopping we told her that we hit our target and therefore could have left the gangway but, we didn’t. We carried on working so both costumes would have a total of 1,000 images. How was that unfair? We also told her that Zoran and I hit the target because we were working together as a team. Gangway is about team work. Zoran, who was in costume, was doing the most smudging. Costumes are the main smudgers. Having said that, the shooter still needs to help smudging the guests in. 

Camila had the audacity to tell us we were wrong and only the costumes smudge. The shooters just take the photos. This wasn’t the first time we’d been told how to do our jobs by Camila, a new hire. Turning to her, I pointed out that she was a new hire and although Zoran and I had only been on the Mariner for 2.5-3.5 months, we were P2 and in our short stints on the ships knew more about working as a ship’s photographer than she did. Camila was only in her 3^rd week!! We weren’t having a go, we’re trying to help and explain the way things are to her as she’s new. The last thing we expected was for her to storm off crying her eyes out!!

Zoran and I were determined to get the target and stayed on. Everyone else had gone inside. Within 12 minutes we had hit the overall target and surpassed it with 677 images! Leaving the gangway in good spirits and a huge smack of a high five we headed to the staff mess with about 1,080 images between us. We’d smashed the target!!!

Going back to the cabins, I heard Hernan’s music. The thought of going in to talk to him crossed my mind but I left it. I knew the real reason why he was upset and annoyed and it had very little to do with gangway. The previous night he’d broken up with his girlfriend, Eve and was still upset about it. I won’t say why it happened but as they say… ship happens!

Jumping in the shower, I stuffed my laptop and camera into my bag. Luci was shouting at me to hurry up and get ready! Yelling back, she laughed saying “Lou, you are so cute. You are like my daughter!” It is a bit of a mother-daughter relationship with me and Luci now. She yells at me for not being ready to go out when I’ve just come back from work, even though she’s been off all morning. She yells, I yell back, often reminding her the more she yells at me, the longer I’ll take to get ready.

Finally, Camila arrived at the cabin. None of us had been to Genoa before so we had no idea what to expect. Walking around, we found a cheap supermarket so we all popped in for juice, coca-cola and a few snacks. 

Genoa is a nice city, don’t get me wrong, but it’s at the bottom of the list. If we’d just gone straight to Genoa, we’d have loved it but after all the places we’ve seen while working on the ship, we didn’t find anything special about it. 

Taking photos as we went along, we were trying to find a place to use the internet. I wanted to call the parents and Becks. 

Time was ticking and it wasn’t long until Luci and Camila had to go back to the ship. I carried on walking around and within another 5 minutes found a pizzeria where there was free wifi. The internet was fast and there wasn’t a single crew member around. Bliss! 

There was another message from Stu, he was still doing good and going back into the wilderness again. He hadn’t uploaded any photos from his previous trip. The parents weren’t online because of the time difference. This is something I tend to forget about! About five minutes before I left I was getting attacked by bees and I’m not kidding! The buggers were all after my can of coke. Quickly sending a message to my Dad, it was time for me to leave…. Quickly!

Walking around for a little while longer, I spotted the Bio-sphere on the docks. I remembered seeing it while looking through photos on Flickr.com. It looked a lot more impressive in the photos though. Situated near the aquarium is an enormous pirate’s ship which wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Pirates of the Caribbean film!

Back on the ship, I had an hour to sleep before shooting casual Ressi. After casual ressi I was in the gallery for a while before shooting on LSP. 

LSP wasn’t as dead as it was the previous night but it was far from busy. Either way, I got some good shots which, for me, was the most important factor. By the time we finished up it was 1am. We all  had to pop down to the lab to collect the schedule.

In true tradition with Jomar’s schedules, there was a problem. Zoran and Hernan were due to be on gangway in costume… only problem was, we didn’t have the costume for the occasion! Ritesh changed the costumes to sailors. Zoran was too tall to wear the sailor’s outfit so I had to swap with him. Instead of shooting, I was now the sailor. Last time I was sailor there was a complaint so I’d better watch myself this time… 

A New Chapter

A New Chapter

22^nd July 2011

Off with the old and on with the new! That’s right, it’s embarkation time again. 

We are back in Civitavecchia, Italy. The two week cruises have finally come to a close and we are at the beginning of a new chapter. 

For the next 7 weeks we’ll be doing seven day cruises and inter-porting. Inter-porting, is basically having two cruises merged into one. We’ll be having two embarkation days, one in Civitavecchia and the other in Genoa, Italy.

The countries we’ll be visiting this time are: Civitavecchia (Italy), Genoa (Italy), Cannes (Monte Carlo) (Italy), Barcelona (Spain), Palma de Mallora (Spain) and Corsica (France). 

Although I lived in Spain for 14 years I’ve only ever driven through Barcelona and never had a chance to look around. I’m incredibly excited about some of the new ports but there’s one in particular: Cannes (Monte Carlo). I’m desperate to go to Monte Carlo, it’s a place I’ve wanted to go to for years. I’ll literally be running around the F1 race track snapping away.

Approximately 2,200 guests would be embarking today and roughly 1,200 would be Italians. Italian season is in full swing! Italians are notorious for not trying to speak another language other than their own, a little like the England and Americans! 

Instead of setting up three backdrops, we set up two inside the terminal. Another bonus was we were allowed to wear our white shirts. Wearing the black GTP shirts in the sun last cruise was an utter nightmare. We were roasting! 

During my five hour stint on embarkation I picked up a few Italian phrases from Fabio and Sandra. Nothing special but useful things like, “let’s get your photo” and “have a nice day”. Every time I try to count one, two three in Italian, the two comes out in Portuguese. I guess you can’t have everything!

Things were slowing down and we were rapidly getting bored. An Italian family were walking towards our set up. Bouncing up to the guy I smiled and and laughed “Tutti Frutti… Let’s get your photo” in Italian. The guy didn’t look too impressed and abruptly replied “Italiano”. I really didn’t  know what to say, I was completely dumbfounded! 

Later on I told Sandra what had happened and she couldn’t stop laughing and called Fabio. Telling him what happened, he did the same but told me to be careful. “Frutti” sounds very similar to a slang word meaning “gay” in Italian, so the guest could have misunderstood me and thought I’d told them all they were gay. Oops!! Trying to look the least bit concerned failed as I creased up alongside Sandra.

Luckily enough there wasn’t a pax dril today, that’d be tomorrow once all the guests were on board. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to get off the ship to have a look around in the port. 

Towards the end of the shift, as things were going quite, Jomar left to get us a burger from McDonald’s. We were all joking he’s trying to sway our votes as he’s not the most popular at the moment.

Once embarkation was over it wasn’t long until I was due to shoot LSP. My knee’s been playing up recently and not getting any better. It keeps blowing up like a balloon but I’m refusing to go to the medical facility. I’ll see if it sorts itself out. Sitting on the posing boxes, the ship was almost deserted. 

Smudging was impossible, I was either ignored or told no. During the entire one and a half hour stint I managed to take two photos – both were for a crew members passport. Sanela did the middle shift on LSP and came back with similar results. So much for hitting the 100 image target. We didn’t even scratch the surface.

Jomar has now come up with the bright idea of us working until midnight. Everyone was sitting around for the last hour with nothing to do. People were slowly drifting by earlier on in the evening but from 11 onwards, there was no one to be seen. Just us photographers. 

By the time we broke the studios down and closed the gallery it was 01.15. The printer in the office has broken down so we all had to head down to the lab to get our schedules for the next day.

By 02.00 I was wrapped up in bed. The alarm was on and I was dreading waking up at 06.30 for gangway!

Genoa, here comes the Mariner of the Seas!

Oh, and House Keeping left us all a present...

 ... which Hernan wanted to test his karate skills on...

... unfortunately, my camera battery died just as Hernan took his second attempted and kicked the toilet roll off the door handle!!

Wardrobe Malfunctions

Wardrobe Malfunctions!

20^th July 2011

This cruise I’ve been on gangway quite a lot, mainly shooting and I’ve got to admit, I’m getting much, much quicker. The same goes for my cropping but there are times when it gets a little loose. Today however I’m in my favourite gangway costume as… the Crete Girl!

The costume was still in the lab so I had to get up at 06.00 and run down to pick it up. I was so tired that I ended up dragging my backside out of bed at 06.030 leaving me little time to get ready.

Getting the costume I decided to just get dressed in the lab. Putting the white under shirt on and something didn’t look right. It was all baggy and falling off me. Then it clicked. The elastic in the shoulder line had snapped. Chucking the dress over my head and there was nothing to lace it up with. The lace hadn’t made it out of the Crew Laundry. Putting my shirt back on, I run up the stairs to come down another flight on the opposite side of the water tight doors (you’ve got to love the water tight doors!) and popped into the laundry. 

The Indonesian lads in Laundry are always so nice and when I told them that the lace wasn’t with the dress a couple had a look around for me. They couldn’t find it but found something else that I could use as a substitute. Thanking them, I ran back up to Deck 1 and to the cabin.

While changing into the costume there was a knock at the door. It was Camila asking to borrow my white gangway trainers as hers were hurting her feet. No chance. I had 5 minutes to get ready in, it was pitch black because I couldn’t turn the light on without waking Luci and there was no way I could find anything under the mountain of shoes and bags on the floor. She hadn’t even got the rail from the lab yet.

Zoran was having a field day trying to find David’s gangway shorts to wear but thinks Fabio’s done something to them in one of his overly drunken moments.

Camila soon came back into the corridor with the rail. The only problem was it didn’t have the Greek flag inside. It was completely bare. When we told her she needed to have a flag inside the ring she went mental, shouting at us in Portuguese “you all expect me to know everything. None of you have told me it had to have a flag. You haven’t taught me anything”. She’s been here long enough to know that the ring and rail always have a flag with the name of the port on it. Storming off she went back to the lab. 

The rest of us headed onto the gangway where we found the rail in the open and no one watching it. Zoran and I picked up the rail and put it to one side. 

Coming back a little later Camila was carrying a tiny Greek flag. We told her that wasn’t the right one to which she said there wasn’t anymore. There are normally stacks of them in the lab but she was insisting there wasn’t any in the folders where we store the flags.

Zoran was shooting me and we always work well together. We were skipping around and literally chasing after guests who refused to have their photo taken. So many people were pegging it away from us thinking we wouldn’t chase and grab them. Most laughed at us running after them and stopped and had their photo taken. Others had to be grabbed and turned around towards the camera before they’d put their arm around me and smiled for the camera. It was all a great laugh. 

There were a couple of people getting pissed off at us for constantly being hounded by photographers. We were all doing it with a smile on our faces and having a laugh. Some didn’t quite take it like that. One person shouted at us to which I replied “Miss, you’re going to miss having us treating you like celebrities, running after and papping you”. She wasn’t amused. 

One guy shrugged me off saying he couldn’t have his photo taken with us because his wife was jealous… looking over at his wife, I suggested she should jump in too. She simply looked at me like dirt and walked off. So did her husband. Zoran and I looked at each other in amazement before cracking up and running towards someone else. A lot of people were recognising me and calling, “Hey Lou! We’ll get a picture with you”. It was great fun.

Taking a break quick break to have a drink, I went down to the lab to see if I could find some of the Crete/Greek signs for Camila. 

Walking through the Crew Laundry they all started whistling and cheering. One of the lads, Edi, simply held his hands out, pointing to my costume with a big smile on his face. Everyone, including myself was laughing. I shouted “Calm it you lot” which just made them laugh more. The Indonesian lads from laundry are always so cheerful and laughing!

Camila was right, the folders were where they should be but there was nothing in any the Crete folder. Where the hell had the signs gone? There were loads of them!

Going back to the cabin, I had a quick cigarette and drink before Zoran and I headed back onto the gangway. When we reached 250 images we’d come back in for another break. It wasn’t long until we reached our 250 images. 

Unfortunately, our time on the gangway was cut short by the sound of “Bravo, Bravo, Bravo…” It was time for the red drill. Zoran and I both held red emergency cards and therefore had to head back onto the ship. I had get out of my gangway costume and into my uniform before the alarm sounded. The alarm itself took longer than usual. I had time to sit down with Zoran and have a quick can of Fanta before it sounded. Grabbing my life jacket I headed up to Deck 5.

Once upstairs Becky ticked me off the list and someone came around and asked us security questions. Regina was there and explained to me what we were going to do. It was my first drill in this section and I had no idea about what was going on. The life rafts were ready to be lowered.

After an hour and a half of waiting around and endless calls for certain people to get to their emergency stations, we were all called to our life raft points. The drill couldn’t end until everyone holding a red card was ticked off the list. For that alone, the drill look an hour longer than usual. 

My life raft point was the same as my muster station. We all had our life jackets on and finding it hard to stay awake... More waiting around. After another 30 minutes the announcement came for all crew members participating in the life raft exercise to board their rafts.

There were six of us in our life boat. My job was to grab an oar when we hit the water and push the boat away from the ship. There were two of us doing the job. Two guys were at the back of the boat to release the clamp from the wires and one at the front. The final person was the “captain” of the life boat who was in charge of driving. 

Once a couple of metres away from the ship, the engine started and we were speeding off into the sea. Two minutes later the engine cut out. There were about eight other life boats around us, just floating. 

This is the procedure – we get away from the ship, group together as much as possible and just wait for help. The boats were rocking side to side and bobbing up and down! If you get sea sick easily, you’ll be turning green within no time at all!

The “Captain” of the life boat told two of the men to come over. He taught them how to work the life boat and steer. They both had a go of driving around in circles for five minutes or so. After we were just waiting around for the other boats to join us and the call to come back in. I was also told that next time there’s a drill and I was going to have a go at driving the life boat – I couldn’t wait!! 

Finally, after what seemed an age, a voice crackled over the walkie-talkie telling us to head back to the ship. The captain of our life boat said that when it’s windy the boat will slam against the side of the ship – oh joys. 

Once it was secured we climbed out and onto the deck. From there we had to climb up a ladder to the point where we all had a go at cranking up the life boat until it was suspended over the deck. It was like doing a work out at the gym!! The girls went first, the higher the boat got, the harder it became to crank up and that’s when the men took over.

Once we’d all climbed back down, we picked up our life jackets and were dismissed. The drill was finally over after 2 and a half hours. 

I had an hour left of my break before going back to work. I bumped into Zoran on back deck and we sat around talking for a bit before going up a couple of decks for something to eat.

It was formal night tonight and we were already shattered. We’d both missed our chance to get some sleep and it was now time for set up. For the fourth formal night in a row Zoran was shooting ship and boy, was he getting sick to death of it! I’m being alternated between two boring backdrops – Bow and Titanic. There’s really no point in even looking at my formal schedule anymore because I know what’s coming. Fabio is always on LSP. David’s reign on black is over and all the new members of the team are shooting centrums and stairs while the more experienced ones are on crap, "learner's" backdrops. 

The worst thing about it all was that Sanela was put on Stairs one formal night, didn’t take many photos and approximately 95% of her shots were out of focus. The same happened the following formal night when she was on Centrum 3. 95% of all her shots were completely out of focus while the background was as sharp as a pin!! It didn’t make sense to us.

Set up took longer than it should – as it always does. By the time we were finished we had a couple of hours until it was show time. I had an hour to sleep. 

The night was a bit of a drag, no one wanted their photos taken. We were smudging as much as we could until the middle of the second session. By then it was obvious we weren’t going to get anywhere. After the second Ressi, we were back in the studio for one last session. One hour to go and the studios were dead. 

The singers came onto the Royal Promenade bridge and 70’s Night began and it wasn’t long until the party was in full swing. The guests were all rushing over. David had to quickly dismantle his studio on the Promenade as the crowd grew bigger and bigger. People will even try to stand on the light’s power packs to get a bigger view of what’s going on!! 

There wasn’t long left and my side of Deck 5 was empty. The dining room was empty too. Not even the Italians were out… and that’s saying something. David started breaking down the studio where Fede had been before he started his long night of printing in the lab.  With nothing to do, I helped. With 10 minutes left, David told me to gather my stuff, download my images and bring the studio bag up. In the meantime he’d break my studio down.

Soon we’d all closed our studios and downloaded our images. We were all breaking down our studios. Those who had broken theirs down already were moving on to other studios to help out. 

Starting from Deck 5 we loaded all the equipment in and moved down to Deck 4 where we did the same. Three people had to run down to Deck 3 as there was no more space in the lift. From there, we all worked as quickly as possible to shift everything into the store and finish up for the night.

With break down done, all that was left was the pizza. Two of the lads had already gone for pizza but in recently weeks we’ve been having a lot of problems with getting food on formal nights. It was getting a bit playground-like and incredibly petty. The cooks simply didn't want to make us pizza!

Looking around at everyone… we were all completely shattered. Port days and formal nights really aren’t a good mix!!

Popular on the Gangway! :-o

Crete Girl and Shooter

BEST gangway photo EVER!

Time To Chill

Time to Chill

19th July 2011

Today Camila and I have the day off for our good comments. We gathered our stuff and headed to 4 Seasons – our favourite place to go for food, internet and drinks in Rhodes. The people are so friendly, it’s a place Rueben took us to when he was working on the Mariner. We’d be meeting Luci there later on to get a photograph with the owners. 

There was a message from Stu. He’s been out in the wilderness for 10 days and seems to be having a great time.

After having a bit to eat and a quick drink we grabbed our stuff and headed to the beach. 

Rather than going to the beach where the other members of the crew were, we headed in the opposite direction. There’s a quite bay just by the port, with a great view of the ship. The water is crystal clear, Luci said it reminds her of the Caribbean Sea.

Stripping down to our bikinis it was so refreshing running into the sea. The water was pretty chilly but lovely! After taking some photos, having a swim and splashing round a bit we laid in the sun for 20 minutes before we had to go back to 4 Seasons to meet Luci.

We didn’t stay long as we were running out of time. Today we were acting more like guests running around trying to cram everything into a couple of hours. Sometimes we really do take being in the same port countless times for granted and do very little other than sitting around using the internet, grocery shopping and/or sleeping. We took our photo with the owners of 4 Seasons, he gave us our card and his name so we could add him on Facebook.

Heading out into the heat of Rhodes we walked up the main shopping strip. Luci needed to get some presents for her family as she’s leaving in a bit more than two weeks. The way things are going at work, she can’t wait to go home either!  

As time was ticking, we decided to head to the shops where we knew there was something we wanted. After an hour of walking around Luci had a traditional Greek style silver ring and a dress for her niece. Camila and I bought the same stripped blue and green bags (I found a bag to match my scarf in completely different countries). I nearly walked into the armour shop to buy another one of the scroll painting but held myself back. We had a quick look in our favourite dress shop in Rhodes. There was one dress I really wanted… but it was longer than 5’1, my height!

Back on the ship, we all jumped into the shower (the same shower… just kidding) and changed into our evening uniform. It was straight down to the lab to collect the prints for display. 

One and a half hours of display (followed by an evening of condensing in the gallery) is enough to make anyone fall to sleep! Let’s hope there are some funny pictures within the pile to keep us entertained!! We’ve decided to rip down Jomar’s wedding montage from the office door and have our own little Wall (or door) of Shame. We’ve already got about 6 gangway photos to put up… most are accidently provided by Zoran!! 

Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas

Me & Camila at the Beach in Rhodes

This is the Life!

On the Beach in Rhodes with the Mariner of the Seas :-)

Birthday Presents

Birthday Presents

18^th July 2011

Kusadasi is one of my favourite places to go. There’s so much to see and do in this port. One of the best things to do while in Kusadasi is shop. 

A couple of photographers were thinking about going to the beach but the girls would have to go to “Women’s Beach”. Females aren’t allowed on just any beach, they have to go to designated beaches while men can go anywhere. Men can join us females on the Women’s Beach but we can't join them on another beach. I'm so glad I'm from the West!

It’s my brother’s birthday  in August and there were a few things I wanted to get him in Kusadasi. I was getting the presents early so it’d give me enough time to find a post office in one of the new ports and send everything.

During the morning I was photographing David, dressed up as the Turkish Prince. At first we thought it was going to be a very slow gangway but things soon starting picking up and before we knew it, we were clocking up our counts. 

Just before heading out onto the gangway at 07.00 we bumped into Sanela who wasn’t even in her uniform. We were sure she was on gangway this morning. Asking Sanela, she told us she was free shooting outside the terminal and asked if that meant she had to wear her  uniform. Obviously!! David and I couldn’t believe it. She didn’t even have her camera equipment ready. It was still in the lab and her battery hadn’t been charge. Finally, she got off the ship 45 minutes late… again. This was becoming a habit.

Watching David jump and run around the gangway is always a sight to see! Some of the things he says has everyone cracking up. He put his arm around one person and playfully shouted “Sir, let’s get your picture. Just me and you, right here and right now!” The guy couldn’t stop laughing and stopped for his photo. 

Not only is it funny watching David prat around on the gangway, it’s gives you pointers on what you can do when you’re in costume. Obviously you can’t copy out right, that’d be impossible, David has a natural flare for gangway and with people in general. 

We weren’t the only ones on the gangway. Fede was also out shooting Sandra who was officially the Mariner of the Seas Cleopatra. I’ll have to upload a photograph because she looks absolutely stunning as Cleopatra. A couple of guests have spotted her in the gallery and commented “oh you’re the mini Cleopatra”.

David and I were in the lead with our image counts which is a first. Fede is a much faster shooter than I am and David had me running all over the place as he chased after guests. Overall, it was a great laugh and a brilliant way to remember our last gangway in Kusadasi.

Once gangway was over we all nipped up to the mess to get something to eat. A couple of us wanted to get some bits and pieces from the shops so Luci, Ritesh, Fede, Sandra and I headed out into the port. Ritesh wanted a pair of trainers, Luci wanted a pair of shoes like Sandra’s for her cousins back in Brazil, I obviously had to get my brother his birthday presents and Fede was just coming for a walk around. 

The strangest thing about walking around Kusadasi was that people remembered us from walking past two weeks ago! They’d call us and say “Lady, I remember you, you wanted these boots” etc. 
They have a bloody good memory. I find it hard remembering what a guest’s face looks like after five minutes!! 

As I walked past, the men were coming out of the shops shouting “Excuse me, Russian lady”. Me? Russian? No chance. I wouldn’t have said I was a stereotype of a Russian. One person thought I was Dutch which was probably more likely. I couldn’t help but smile either way. Popping into a shop I changed my “Fuck Google… Ask Me!” shirt for a smaller size. Fede bought a copy of evening shirts while Ritesh got a pair of jeans.

Walking around a little more we walked down a small back street where we found a little shop selling typical Turkish jewellery. The earrings are much cheaper and funkier than the ones you can get in England and dare I say it, but the quality is much better than Claire’s and any other accessory store. Choosing a pair was so hard, I wanted the lot! In the end I managed to get some chandelier earrings the girls wear in Turkey. I was thinking about getting a pair for Anna, back in England, but wasn’t sure if she would be able to wear them as they weren’t silver or gold.

With my brother’s presents finally stashed away in a bag, we carried on walking around until we’d done a full circuit of the shops. I even managed to get something for my Mama which I’ll send her once I finally get to a post office. Maybe I’ll be able to find one in Barcelona.

There were only a couple of hours remaining until we all had to board the ship. Heading to the port I stopped off at Hardward Café, a lovely bar with a balcony over the sea. It’s a relaxing place to sit and catch up with the family online. Unfortunately, because of the time difference, my Dad had only just woken up as I was about to leave to go back to the ship.

I found out today that Becks who I met at the Image job interview and trained with in Miami had been fired from Image due to “under-performing”. She wasn’t given any warning or notice, just sent straight home. 

The thing that struck me was that she is a trained photographer, her ship was doing badly anyway and in a previous meeting with her BM they said she was doing a good job. Not only that, during the cruise in which she was fired, she was also given a good comment. It really didn’t make sense. A couple of us guys from the Miami training (we still have a group message going on Facebook) think they might have been trying to make an example of her. Either way, she had no notice, nothing. 

It’s a good job she still lives at home. If it was someone in my case, I’d be sent back to England with pretty much nowhere to go. Obviously they don’t think about that. It’s made me wonder about a few things, that’s for sure. I was really hoping I’d be able to do my second contract with her. Looks like that’s not going to be the case. 

It’s sad as this was the job she really wanted to do: take photos, travel the world and get paid for it. Now that has all taken away within a couple of hours. The more and more I see and hear about the way things work around here, the more I realize that Stuart was right in more ways than one.

Later on, I found out that both Hernan and Zoran got an "Opportunity Log" because they had a low image count in Athens (3 negative opportunity logs is a warning). Hernan signed his and at the side in brackets put “Not Agreed”. Luci, the new AMS, even agreed with Hernan and didn't think either deserved a log. 

Zoran hadn’t even had his good comments logged, just the negative. Luci soon changed that and added them to the log. 

My three good comments from the previous cruise had finally been added to the log. So many of us got good name comments last cruise. Sandra and I lead the way with three each. One lady gave both Sandra and me a good comment. Sandra’s was for being a great help when the lady bought the canvas (of a photo I took on a Centrum). Mine, was for going the extra mile while shooting her daughter on the Centrum on Deck 4 (which was later made into a canvas).

This particular guest told Jomar that I didn’t have a ladder but went running around looking for one anyway and was determined to get a great shot. The girl had a white, puffy Holy Communion style dress on. Deck 4 Centrum has a large circle pattern on the floor tiles. I got the girl to sit down, spreading her dress out within the circle. All the other tiles provided leading lines in towards the girl. Standing up on the ladder, just under the soft box I got a fantastic shot of the girl looking up at the camera. 

It might not have been the most original but it provided an effective final print and the guests loved it. Plus I’d never seen anyone else do it on any of the Centrums. It’s just as Stu once said to me before shooting LSP “you’ve got to think outside the box that the box is in”. 

That’s three more days off for good comments. I’m planning to use them to my best advantages when we start the 7 day cruises next week in ports and countries I’ve never been to before.

Cleopatra

Luci and Cleopatra

Working the Gangway: Newman (Guest Relations), David (Turkish Prince), Me (Shooter) and Sandra (Cleopatra)

Greek Goddess No More

Greek Goddess No More

17^th July 2011

Once again I’m gracing the gangway with my presents… as the Greek Goddess! Again I’m not wearing the Image Greek Goddess costume. Originally I was supposed to be shooting Hernan, the Greek God. 

Last night, when Luci handed out the schedules she told the couple of people present to “be prepared”. Looking at the schedule, Sanela was scheduled to be the Greek Goddess with Fede shooting her. Fede was far from happy. Not only did he want to shoot Sanela because she’s apparently boring on gangway, she doesn’t get a good image count. 

The previous evening Jomar was banging on about us not hitting targets and then he puts Sanela AGAIN on gangway. All the female costumes have been going to Sanela for the last cruise and a half. Luci said the exact same thing and I wasn’t disagreeing. 

Fede picked up the phone to call Jomar. He told Jomar they were switching the Goddesses as Sanela was scheduled for gangway and sail away with the same costume (something we don’t do and for a good reason!)

The entire morning schedule was completely rearranged by Fede. Sanela would shoot the rail rather than Zoran. Zoran would shoot Hernan, the God. I’d replace Sanela as the Goddess with Fede shooting me. Sanela would wear the Image Godess costume for return gangway and sailaway. That would give her a chance to practise smudging in costume. 

When Sanela was told about the changes she was far from happy to say the least and wanted to do both gangways. When she asked why, she got the honest truth, a response she really didn’t like and looked even more miffed! Not long afterwards, she stormed out the office. She honestly thinks there’s some sort of vendetta against her!

The next morning I dragged myself out of bed once again and climbed into my dress. Boy, was I tired! 

At 07.00 Fede and I headed up to the Savoy Theatre. Our orders were to “shoot as many children, blacks and Brazilians as possible”. This, as always, had us rolling up laughing!! Especially as during the meeting someone had to turn to David, fake having a gun in their hands and shooting him. David would start laughing his infectious laugh and shout “you’re all racist!” 

Once up in the theatre, it wasn’t long until we were on a roll. I was skipping about pulling people in for a photo with Fede snapping away. We got some great shots on the stairs leading down to the Savoy. The morning tours had gone and we had over 200 images. 

We decided to go outside onto the gangway for a while to join Hernan and Zoran before coming back in to go to the Lotus Lounge for the afternoon tours.

Walking outside and the heat hit you like a ton of bricks. It was so bright outside Hernan and I (the ones who couldn’t wear sunglasses) were having troubles keeping our eyes open. Fede even said that the heat today in Athens was similar to what he’d experienced in Jamaica. Apparently it was 38ºC and guests were asking if I had sun protection on! The poor guests were worried I was going to burn as I’m as white as a pint of milk (and that’s with a tan)! 

Fede and Zoran had to count to three to enable Hernan and I a chance to close our eyes, opening them only at the last second for the photo. It was an attempt to stop us from squinting. It worked a little, but not much. Without a doubt there are going to be so many dodgy, squinty photos!!

Going back onto the ship at 11.30 we had an hour of photographing the tours coming out of the Lotus Lounge. 

There’s a Brazilian Congress on board with their very own vicar. He was standing at the entrance of the Lotus with one of the Congress leaders. Fede kept asking me to go and get my photo taken with the vicar. I somply couldn’t bring myself to do it because I was wearing a relatively see through white dress with was exposing rather a lot of cleavage. I was looking far from virginal to say the least! “That’s exactly the point” Fede told me. 

In the end, after too much begging and pleading from Fede, I walked over to the Congress Leader and vicar and said in my very best Portuguese “Come, I want a photo with you both” and once the Congress Leader agreed, the vicar did too. Saying thanks I jogged back to Fede who was trying his best to keep a straight face.

12.30 finally rolled around and Fede and I called it quits. We had about 450 images and this gangway had proved to be a lot more difficult than normal. Most of the guests were already complaining that they were “pictured out”. 

Seeing Hernan and Zoran in the photographer’s corridor, we asked how they had got on and the response wasn’t a good one. They’d only managed to take 200 images. To be fair, I can understand where they were coming from and why they’d got such a low count. Outside, no one wanted their photo taken, it was too hot for them and all they wanted to do was jump on the shuttle bus and get to wherever they were going. It was incredibly hard for Hernan to smudge the guests in when he couldn’t even open his eyes. At one point both of us were standing on the gangway with our eyes closed rather than struggling to open them and squinting.

Quickly showering and getting dressed, I grabbed my things. Luci and Camila left a message with security for me saying they were waiting for me outside. They weren’t there. 

Regina, David, Hernan, Fede and I jumped onto the shuttle bus towards the port. It was a Sunday so there's no chance anything but a few coffee shops being open. Not even our local internet haunt was open. O’Connell’s (an Irish pub of all things) was closed for the first time ever. 

As we were heading towards another internet café we bumped into a few crew members who had an internet connection in a small coffee shop. It was too hot to move so we went inside rather than walking around to the other place. Unfortunately the internet was slow but I managed to upload a few photos of the crew party to Facebook for the parents to see. The other crew members were slowly leaving to head back to the ship for work. 

After a couple of hours, Fede, Hernan and I, the last ones standing, decided to call it quits.  Fede had set up at 16.30 while Hernan and I had work at 18.00 so we were going for a quick kip.

Once again it was another night in the gallery and studio for me. I’ve gotten to the point where I prefer working in the gallery, selling, rather than taking photos in the studios. There are some rude guests on this cruise along with some spoilt kids so there’s plenty of snappy remarks and getting ignored. 

Tonight I was shooting Bow for a second time. I didn’t make sense to shoot the same background twice when we have so many others. This time I had the ship’s wheel in front of the background. To make it a bit more interesting and fun, I borrowed David’s captain’s cap. I was aiming at kids… that’s if there were any awake during my 21.30h to 23.30h shift. 

Surprisingly enough, there were loads and it wasn’t long until I had a steady stream of people coming to have their photo taken. They loved wearing the hat and paying captain of the ship – even the adults!! I was only taking one or two photos of each guest and by the end of my shift I had 105 images! Everyone else had between 20-40 which was proving to be normal during these times. 

Back in the office, to download my images, Jomar asked how many images I got, when I told him he didn’t even batter an eye lid, carried on looking at the computer screen and said “that’s what we should be getting”. You can’t please everyone… especially a boss who obviously has a chip on his shoulder!

We are now sailing towards Kusadasi, Turkey. The Greek God and Goddess costumes can now be laid to rest. It was the last time we’d be using the costumes on gangway in Athens and with the way things are going in Greece at the moment, it’s unlikely we’ll ever return. It’ll most probably get dropped from the agenda. 

From now on, the Greek God and Goddess are no more… roll on the Matador and Flamenco dancer!

(Just found these photos from a previous Athens. Luci and I shooting Sailaway)

Checking Exposures for Sailaway

Athens, Greece Sailaway

Luci During Sailaway

Luci LOVES Romero Britto's Work

Shopping

Shopping!

15^th July 2011

Waking up late I knocked on a few cabins to see if anyone was around and if they were, what they’d be doing today. We’re in Ashdod again and for the final time. If you’re not on tour, there’s not a great deal to do like there is in the other ports.

David wanted to get off the ship before he went nuts. That made two of us! 

Grabbing a bite to eat before heading out, we jumped on the shuttle bus and headed to the shopping centre. David was determined to get some new shoes of some sorts. I think his mind was set on a new pair of Converses. 

Arriving at the shopping centre, we had a look around and it wasn’t long until we’d mentally spend a huge sum of money. Looking around for what seemed forever, we finally found someone to exchange our dollars and euros to shekels. 

Heading back to the shopping centre, I bought a new bikini top – I’m hoping for a couple of hours at the beach at some point! Going into another shop, David bought a pair of black trainers which didn’t even make it into the box! He walked out wearing them, telling me his new trainers were so comfortable it felt like he was walking on air!

It wasn’t long until we bumped into Hernan and Eve who were walking about doing a bit of shopping. Eve wanted a hat but couldn’t find anything she liked. She didn’t know which type she wanted and just said, “I’ll know when I see it”! I saw a lovely shirt but $80 was a bit over my budget!! 

Popping into a few more shops, David and I separated from Eve and Hernan. They were going to the beach for a few hours. Eve had the entire day off while Hernan didn’t have to work until the late evening. 

The best place to buy electrical equipment is definitely Israel. I was so tempted to give my credit card a good hammering!! It was just under €60 for a 1TB external hard drive. In the end, I managed to contain myself and walked out with an 8GB SD memory card for €13. Looking back on it, I really wish I’d bought the external hard drive. Mine is only 500GB and it’s rapidly filling up with obscene amounts of photographs!! Oh well, you live and learn.

We spotted Hernan and Eve again. David and I were off to the ship for an hours nap before we started work. Hernan and Eve were still trying to find a way of getting to the beach and didn’t fancy waiting 15 minutes for the free shuttle bus and were contemplating getting a taxi which would cost about $10-15. In the end they went for the cheap and cheerful option and joined us on the bus.

The rest of the evening was spent in the gallery and studios. The night itself was so slow. For sure we aren’t going to make much money this cruise. No one is buying and we’ve got our fingers crossed that somehow, things might just pick up on the last day or towards the end of the cruise.

HOT day in Ashdod, Israel - David, Eve and Hernan

David, Me and Hernan